Last month was a big one for us! Hudson seemed to grow by leaps and bounds, practically daily. As usual, I’m late posting this so our big boy is now well over 8 months old! But I didn’t want to miss the chance to document some of the things that made month 7 so awesome. (Which really, true to confusing pregnancy/baby math, is month 8. May Hudson inherit his dad’s affinity for numbers.)

As has been true of every month since last August, this one flew by. We had our first family vacation to Palm Springs, which definitely warrants its own recap. We also all got sick this month, and Hudson got the worst of it. Seeing him so miserable was the worst, but we learned about the magic of baby benadryl and acetaminophin/ibuprofin cycling, gave him lots of hugs, and now it’s behind us.

Mostly, I think this month was notable because he seems more and more like a little boy to me. (A tiny, destructive little boy that communicates via grunts and yelling like a miniature caveman. Now that I’ve written that… maybe that’s all little boys?) It’s fun and also a little bit heartbreaking to see hints of the little boy he’ll be while the babyish qualities and dependencies melt away.

On that note, anyone else remember the word “babyish?” That’s one I haven’t thought of in a while. That was the ultimate insult between my sister and I, whether to each other or to a thing: “Stop acting so babyish!” or “That shirt is so babyish.” Was that something we made up or do all kids hate to be reminded of their recent arrival here on earth?

Okay, on to Hudson!

Wiggles

Hudson is increasingly physical. I still like to read the corresponding chapters for his development and age in the Wonder Weeks book to see what’s going on in that big head of his, even though I agree 100% with what Jason often says: “IT’S ALL A LEAP!” But one of the things the book says often is that you can start to see hints of your baby’s personality by what he chooses to focus on. I’m pretty convinced the second he’s mobile, he’ll never be in one place for longer than 2 seconds ever again.

A few months ago, he started laying on his back and thrusting his whole torso upwards, off the floor, like a baby bridge. He’d do it a few times in a row out of nowhere, seemingly to expend energy. And now, he’ll lay on his stomach and shoot his legs and arms out over and over again like a beetle flipped the wrong way. If he’s trapped in his stroller, he’ll start dramatically shaking his head from left to right—just always, always moving!  The worst example of this is that while on his changing table he twists like a corkscrew to grab the basket of supplies behind him, often knocking the whole thing off in the process.

We have a variety of ridiculous nicknames that speak to these qualities including Wiggles and Wreck-It Hudson. May these live on only in our memories 😉

Eating solid food and drinking water

This month was night and day compared to 6 months on the food front. Once I started seasoning his food, he’s game for pretty much anything. Oatmeal with a big dollop of peanut butter is his favorite, and he’ll eat a pretty astonishing quantity for dinner at night before bed. He also likes sweet potatoes, apple sauce, spinach (when mixed in with something else!), chicken, beef, eggs — but funny enough, the two things that he’s gone to TOWN on are hummus and guacamole, both given at restaurants to try to entertain his wiggly self. Give him all the flavor! I also have been making banana muffins that he’ll eat with me at breakfast in the mornings.

He still makes the same hilarious, horrified face the first moment anything goes in his mouth, but then he’s good to go.

We’ve tried the sippy cup here or there to mixed enthusiasm and results, but while we were on vacation, Grandma started giving him sips of her water out of a real cup and he LOVED it. So now, we’re just doing practice sips with open cups, and he’s also starting to figure out how to use the soft straw on my big bubba water bottle.

Giving hugs

This is by far the cutest update of last month. As mentioned, Hudson is generally a little whirlwind of wiggles, kicks and twists. So when we’re holding him, we’re holding on for dear life. Over the last month, he started something new where he’d pause to bury his face into our shoulders and wrap his little arms around us for a few moments. And yes, I die of happiness, every time. It never lasts long, but it is the sweetest thing. He’s changing so quickly that the days of infant snuggles already seem far in the past, so I’m mentally bottling up these moments.

Toys and Games

Huds LOVES his toys, which is a good thing considering there are literal buckets of them littering our home 😃 He likes to sit in front of his toy bucket and take them out, one by one, examining each one carefully and then tossing it aside. On to the next one!

Over the last month he’s gone from just looking at or grabbing for his toys to really playing with them. His favorites are his laptop—he’s fascinated with it opening and shutting—and a dog that sings and lights up. (Both Christmas presents from Grandma and Papa!)  

Smiles and Serious Face

We get a lot of comments when we’re out and about regarding his high level of cuteness, and this proud new mom can’t even find a way to phrase that as a humblebrag. He is just adorable.

The other common comments are that he’s a big boy, that he’s so serious, or that he’s so happy. The last two are obviously contradictory, but he is not one to smile on command if he’s not feelin’ it. There have been many serious stare-downs with well meaning strangers smiling at him or trying to engage him with funny noises or faces. He just looks at them with those big chubby cheeks and a slightly furrowed baby brow, taking it all in.

Other times, he really turns it on and gives people big, open smiles or even little shy peekaboo smiles. I can’t figure out if he’s reacting to the person, or if it’s just a reflection of his mood in the moment. Maybe both? Whatever it is—I love both sides of his personality.

Starting to crawl

This month we saw a huge jump in his upper body and core strength! Tummy time as an infant was not his favorite, so when he suddenly preferred to be on his tum and was often pushing most of his torso off the floor, it was a big surprise. All that rolling around pays.

There’s been a clear progression in mobility: first, lifting his torso off the floor, then BIG reaches for a toy that he wants, then starting to use his hands to spin himself around in different directions while on his belly. But there was little crawling action because he couldn’t seem to get that tummy off the ground.  I read a tip about elevating their hands to help them bear weight on their knees more comfortably, so we propped up his hands on a couch cushion on the floor and he immediately lifted up his torso and started rocking back and forth on his knees! Since then, he’s been trying that move on his own and doing more army crawling.

True crawling is right around the corner and we are not even remotely prepared, haha. I have ordered a few child proofing things but we’ve set an April goal of getting some of our death trap of a condo truly baby-proofed.

He can easily sit up now when put into sitting position and stay there for as long as he wants. The “BUT” to that is that he still thrusts himself backwards with a lot of force. I have no earthly idea how to get him to stop doing that so for now, sitting is still a highly supervised activity.

Babbling

Huds is so adorably vocal lately! Lots of babbling and squealing. The most prominent has been “dadadadada”—I’m accepting the fact that this likely means his first word will be “dada.” (And secretly, I love it. Jason and his little mini-me are THE CUTEST together.)

Beyond the babbling, he is quite clear with us when he’s over an activity (or food, or place) and lets us know through various strings of dissatisfied grunts. Happiness is expressed in squeals or giggles, of course, but the grunts are the best. He has started crying more this month, but it seems like he’s experimenting with crying as a tool to communicate with us more than anything. And typically, the grunts precede the crying. So really, it’s our own fault if we get to crying, haha. I imagine him saying: “You had a chance to fix this.”

Sleeping

I had such high, high hopes for solid foods becoming our sleep savior. Longer naps and finally dropping that last nighttime feeding had to be just around the corner with some oatmeal!

Unfortunately, this was not the case and I feel pretty resigned to the fact that we just have a cat napper on our hands. He is still great at putting himself to sleep within minutes, but he just cannot get himself back to sleep during the day after his sleep transitions between 30-45 minutes. This means that we remain solidly in nap jail, and our progress towards the two nap dream has effectively halted, since he can’t nap for only 60-90 minutes over the course of the whole day without being a complete psycho. So, I just tell myself we’ll get there eventually—right? She asked hopefully.

This was a weird month on the night sleep front because we were out of town for a week and he was sick for a week, so there were lots (and lots) of night wakings. And given the circumstances, I just went with it. Jason and I are both pretty exhausted after weeks of newborn-style sleep again, but we finally seem to be settling back in to just one wake up around 3-4am. At which point he’s gone without food for 8-9 hours and I feel like hey, a guy’s gotta eat. I can handle one wakeup. Three, I cannot! How did we survive eight months ago?!

Out and About

Since our first big car ride, we’ve been out and about a lot! Or at least we’ll call it a lot as compared to the previous 6 months 😃 Hudson and I met friends for a music class once, which as expected was a huge hit. And we also went to a baby gym class, which was also a ton of fun. March was not, and never is, the nicest month here in Chicago, so it was good to have some activities to break up the gray days. But we did get out for walks whenever we could, and I am so, so excited for consistently nice weather to get here already.

We’ve also gotten a lot braver (or maybe just desperate and stir crazy?) about bringing him to restaurants with us for short stints. He has about an hour max in him, requires lots of plastic cups to keep him entertained, and it’s critical that nothing glass is within reach or it’s a goner. Another critical step is saving Elmo’s Song on YouTube until things start to get hairy, which gets us a bonus 10 minutes.

Blitz

Oh, and I’m sure you’re thinking: but Laura, what about the cat?! I’m so glad you asked.

I’m happy to report that relations between Hudson and Blitz continue on an extremely positive trajectory. Hudson is not exactly a delicate little guy, and if Blitz gets near him, (which is often:  he LOVES Hudson and follows him everywhere) he’ll enthusiastically grab as much fur as he can fit into his chubby little fist  and yank for dear life. Blitz just sort of rolls his eyes and moves his body out of reach. I love them.

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And that concludes another 2000+ word update about Hudson! Brevity: not my strongest suit. Jason has said, “why don’t you blog shorter things, more often?” But these updates are like a runaway train… I get started and watch out. But I’m glad I’ll have these to look back on both to remember all of the little details about Hudson each month, and as my own journal. I’m tired and I wish I blow-dryed my hair more often, but life is good.

I recently listened finished the S-Town podcast and, like the rest of the world, found it beautiful and thought-provoking. (Also, not at all what I expected! Where is the gold?!) The main character talks often about a “worthwhile life” and what that means, calculating the number of hours in one’s life not spent sleeping, eating, or doing the things required just to live. How do you fill those hours? That’s what defines whether or not your life is worthwhile, he says.

I’ve talked before about what a 180 it’s been to go from traveling, dining out, and enjoying complete freedom to life with Hudson. But from the perspective of a “worthwhile life” — I think this is as good as it gets.

Cheers to 7 months, Hudson! I love you more than you’ll ever know.